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t? 1 



THE 



War Claims of the South. 



THE KEW SOUTHEEX CONFEDEEACY, WITH THE 

DEMOCEATIC PAETY AS ITS CLAIM AGEXCY, DB- 

MA]S^DING IXDEMXITY FOE CONQUEST, 

AND THEEATENING A DISPUTED 

PEESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 



THE CANDIDACY OF HAYES AND THE RELIEF OF THE 
REPUBLIC FROM DANGER. 



A^N ADDRESS 

At Cooper Institute, New York, Wednesday Evening, October '2b, 1S76, 



AND LETTERS ADDRESSED TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW 

YORK WORLD REPLYING TO THAT JOURNAL, 

AND TO GOYERNOR TILDEN, 



B y M.; HALSTEAO, 



OF CINCINNATI. 




C I N C I N N ATI: 

ROBERT CLARKE & CO., PRINTERS. 

IS76. 



/v 



fO 



THE 



WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 



Fellow-citizexs : 

The October State elections this year have not decided 
the Presidential election. That has been referred to New- 
York. I am here to speak of a matter of business con- 
nected with the election ; and the letter from the Demo- 
cratic candidate for the Presidency, published this morn- 
ing, certifies the importance of that business. I propose to 
speak of the public peril of the war claims of the " Solid 
South " — of the new Southern Confederacy — with the 
Democratic party as its claim agency demanding indemnity 
for conquest, and threatening a disputed Presidential elec- 
tion, which would reduce the American Republic to the 
grade of Mexico. I propose also to show that the Southern 
claims are greater in proportions than the N'ational debt, 
and that the idea at the root of the matter is the adoption 
of the Confederate system of finance — the issue of legal- 
tender paper to pay the claims — a policy that would reduce 
the finances, the credit, the bonds of the Kation to a level 
with those of the Southern Confederacy — the level of 
hopeless bankruptcy. I propose to speak, too, of the re- 
organization of the Confederate army, equipped with 
pocket-pistols and shot-guns, to disregard the only condi- 
tion imposed by the IsTation when the Confederacy was 
crushed by military force— that of manhood sufirage — and 
to carry the Republican States of the South for the 
Democratic party by the deadly derringer. 



WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 



Mr. TiMon. as any one can see by the last issue of Frank 
Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, is a gentleman in the bloom 
of early manhood, standing in an attitude that recalls the 
First Xapoleon. before the door of the Treasury. I am at 
a loss to know whether it is Mr. Tilden's apparent youth 
and innocence, or his probable excess of occupation pre- 
vontiuii: the study of the subject, that has caused his singu- 
iarlv complete misapprehension of the extent and charac- 
ter of the Confederate War Claims, and of his own rela- 
tions to them. As for the restraints that he assumes to 
:\ himself, in the letter in which he testifies to 
importance of the War Claims urged by the 
rnitcd South, the gentleman has forgotten that no longer 
in the first week of August he reminded his eoun- 
. when accepting the nomination of the St. Louis 
Convention, that ** experience had repeatedly exposed the 
futility of self-imposed restrictions by candidates." It 
must have been an imperative sense of the necessity of say- 
ing something, and that quickly, that overcame what we 
may assume was the natural reluctance of Governor Til- 
den, after announcing the futility of self-imposed restraints 
in such cases, to make proclamation of the restraints that 
he presumes to impose upon himself. 

He tells what he will do if he is elected President re- 
8pK?cting the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment, 
which do not apply to the Southern claims that we are 
f- We refer to claims for damasres to Southern 
, ^ aims that property was taken for the use of the 

array. And the truth is, if we are li\'ing under a Confed- 
-m of Government, if the Xational soldiers were 
, -rs upon the soil of the seceded States, the Confed- 
erate war claims are just and ought to be paid. The sensi- 
bility of Govenor Tilden on this subject is worthy of all 
praise. But we nmst take his word for it that such a self- 
imposed restraint has been shown by experience to be futile. 
There is one restraint in which I have confidence, and only 
'■■•"• - to rc-^train the Governor of iN'ew York from 
i'.nt of the United States. The Governor 



WAB CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 



of Ohio is the better man for the place. He was himself 
'• a trespasser upon Southern soil " when it was made sa- 
cred by secession, and if he is elected President we shall 
not be troubled by Confederate War Claims. 

" We, the people of the United States," have accom- 
plished the end of the Constitution, in forming " a more 
perfect union " than that Confederacy which was the weak- 
ness of onr fathers in the Revolution. Through prc^perous 
peace and triumphant war w e have become a mighty Nation . 
The Xatiou is a Republic, based upon manhood suffrage ; 
and I propose to discuss the question whether we can afford 
to place the Geueral Government in the hands of the j;»olit- 
ical organization whose record promises, and whose atti- 
tude threatens, a return to that Confederate system, which 
is identified with the intolerant rule of a sectional class, 
and illustrated by those chapters of our history that are of 
evil fame, and whose ** disasters veiled the sun." 

All citizens who are interested in fair play for industry 
in good works should rejoice in the cry that we must have 
a change — reform, economy, and " wise finance ; " but in 
the capacity of an independent citizen it is impo^ible to 
accept the Democratic party as the agency of reforma- 
tion. 

The October elections have referred the Presidential 
contest to S^ew York ; and I, a citizen of the larger and 
more populous and Republican of the October States, 
Ohio, am here to address the people of the State of Des- 
tiny in this year of lofty recollections and hopes, on what 
I understand to be in the most serious sense a matter of 
business. 

Indiana was not won by the Republicans in the election 
on the 10th of this month, because the baleful delusions 
that grow like i-ag weeds from issues of legal-tender paper 
had not been dispelled by courageous and competent in- 
struction of the people in the canvassing of other years ; 
and because importance was given rather to sentimeutal 
excitement than to affairs of business growing out of the 
war. 



6 AVAK CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 



Ohio was won by tlie Republicans on tlie same day, be- 
cause the State was faithfully canvassed and the people 
happily educated on the money questions last year, and be- 
cause the true meaning of the Consolidated Southern Con- 
t'ederacy in presenting its bills for war chiims to the Na- 
tional Treasury, was given through the campaign the 
uncommon conspicuity its startling importance demanded. 

West Virginia was carried by the Democratic party upon 
the theory that the Southern war claims would be tenderly 
nurtured by that party, and made to bring forth golden, 
or rather greenback fruit in gracious abundance — and so 
the South is before the country as a united section in behalf 
of an unprinciitled i>arty; and in the Southern Republicau 
States the old Confederate arm}', reorganized in derringer 
cUdis, is engaged in a deadly "-still hunt" for the posses- 
sion of power that "means business" in an eminent de- 
gree. 

"Wlien (lermany crushed the militaiy Empire of France 
she demanded an indemnity for her trouble. The con- 
(pieror gathered the s[)oil with the glory. The American 
kepublic trampled down the Southern Confederacy, and 
tlie Confederates, revived and restored to citizenship, feel 
that justice requires in their behalf a reversal of all the 
precedents of warfare, and are coniidently requiring as a 
peace-ottering from those who overcame them, compensa- 
tion for losses suffered, — the infliction upon the conqueror 
of a tine for the <lanuiges that imi)overished the vanquished. 
This may be described as a novelty, and it adds a fresh 
point to Wellington's famous remark, that next to defeat 
the greatest misfortune is victory. 

The Confederates are (piite right al)Out it, however, if 
they are sound in their theory of the form of our Govern- 
ment ; and if the Democratic ]>arty has any principle, we 
untler.Maufl it to be that the Southern Confederacy w^as 
ri|rht and the Xatiomil Government wrong in the liegin- 
ning, the course, and the end of the war. If the National 
Hoklier \vuh u " trespasser" wherever he touched the sacred 
soil of a Sovereign Southern Slate that, in the exercise of 



WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 



her highest capacity, had withdrawn from the Union — and 
I understand there is distinguished Democratic authority 
for this proposition in the State of New York — we can not, 
of course, get out of the responsihility of paying for all the 
mischief done — without sneaking out of it, and we must 
not do that. 

The cloud of the Southern claims is not spectral — it is 
not a ghost that will vanish when you speak to it ; but it is 
the overshadowing reality of the political campaign about 
to close. If we put the Consolidated Southern Confeder- 
acy in possession of the National Government, we must 
expect the Southern claims to be allowed, and that they 
will be pressed to payment as a debt of honor. 

This is not a phantom danger. It is a plain business 
fact. It is the fruit of the logic, if it has not the flavor of 
the literature, of the Democratic party. 

Now that organization has no iixed principles, if we ex- 
cept the general one that the late war was the result of the 
rebellion of the North against the Divine authority of the 
South — and in the absence of this special illumination of 
our history, the South has no grievance for which the Na- 
tional Government is responsible. Why then the appear- 
ance of the Solid South in the St. Louis Convention? 
Why the total indifference in that Convention of the mass 
of Southern delegates to the terms of the platform and the 
names of the candidates, save only as they might promise 
success, and power, signifying in its last analysis money ? 

The Virginian theory of the Constitution once interfered 
with appropriations by Congress for local enterprises, but 
a change has passed over the spirit of the Southern dream ; 
and we do not hear of the constitutional lawyers of Vir- 
ginia objecting to the appropriation of the uncounted mill- 
ions wanted for the James Eiver Canal, the climax of 
which is a tunnel through the Allegheny Mountains seven 
miles in length, where there would be the total lack of 
water that in the old story spoiled the mill-seat. We do 
not hear that the Southwestern experts in the ancient mys- 
teries of the Constitution find any difficulty in taxing the 



8 WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 



people of the improtected ovei-flowed lands of the Wabash 
aiul White Rivers of Indiana, and the Scioto and Miami 
Rivers of Ohio, to build Mississippi levees ; or that they 
r.-'iuire any stronger argument for constructing a Southern 
ra.itie liailroad than that avast sum was wasted on the 
Northern Pacitic line. 

The Solid South seeks money through jobs and claims 
that we must pronounce preposterous, not only with eager 
energy, but with perfect sincerity in the opinion that the 
money belongs in all fairness and righteousness to the 
Southern people. 

Tlie South has suftered deeply — was desolated and ira- 
l>overished by the war. The distress of her people has 
been great, and in defeat and poverty they were entitled 
to our best sympathy and kimlness and help. It is sorrow- 
ful that tiiere has been a lack of healing statesmanship. 
We are all heavy losers through that misfortune. There 
was, thougli, when the military part of the war was over, a 
Statesman in the White House, and he was assassinated. 
Then a Southern man became President, and our first 
trouble with him was to reduce the j)lethora of his passion 
for hanging the traitors he knew — perhaps too well, if not 
wisely. 

We followed the precedent of elevating to our highest 
civil otfice the most successful of our Generals, and he at 
!':i-t has ever since been regretful that he accepted the 
.-iiuiition. Now, I am not of those who have been con- 
strained by a sense of partisan duty to incessantly applaud 
the Administration. I wanted a change long ago, but I 
have been in thorough sympathy and agreement with the 
President in one particular. He has been in favor of the 
United States of America ; and when charged with unkind- 
!ic>s of spirit toward the Southern people, we may well 
remember tliat it certainly did not appear in the terms he 
gave Lee at Appomattox, or in his leport, at the close of 
the war, on the operations of the armies under his com- 
njand, in wliidj he paid a glowing compliment to Southern 
•soldiers; and it is pertinent to inquire what encouragement 



WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 9 

the President and the generous sentiments of the Xorth 
had, in the treatment that the Southern people gave their 
General Lougstreet when he was appointed to an office 
of honor and profit ? 

I do not propose to sing the songs of praise of the Ad- 
ministration, or to cease from criticism; but it is only fair 
to say that if the South has been infested by and suffered 
from the Carpet-bagger and Scalawag, the f^ult is not 
who]]y or chiefly that of the Administration, or of the 
people of the States that conquered a peace and saved the 
Union. And while I claim to be as independent as a jour- 
nalist can be who is in favor of one side when there are but 
two sides, I am not in any case in favor of putting the 
Southern Confederacy on top of the United States. 

I am completely willing that the people of the South 
should manage their own atlairs, in their own way, "sub- 
ject only to the Constitution of the United States;" but I 
wish it understood, when I say "people of the South," that 
I mean all the people, and recognize no natural right of any 
race to rule. I would that the people of the South had 
given more attention to their own affairs. But when the 
old Confederate politicians prepare, with a crusade of hate 
and reign of terror, the united South, and propose to 
"occupy and possess" all the departments of ISTational 
authority, and to exact from the people at large indemnity 
for the conquest of the Confederacy, it is something far 
more menacing to all of us than when the same politicians 
twenty years ago attempted, not for the sake of slavery, 
but in the love of the political power associated with 
slavery, to nationalize the peculiar institution ; — and this 
grim jjortent of a sectional caste, taking the form of the 
Solid South, and the name of the Democratic party, should 
be confronted and overwhelmed by the Solid Xorth — not 
in hate and tiuy, not under banners of blood, but soberly, 
discreetly, in self-defense, and in the interests of the public 
peace and the general welfare ; and so clear is the issue, that 
it is a shame there is a doubt about the vote of a single 
county from Maine to Oregon. 



10 WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 



In tlio verv dawn of tlio promise of brighter times of 
business, in tlie white light of tlie statesniiinlike utterances 
of the Republican candidate for the Presidency in his letter 
of acceptance of the Cincinnati nomination, arises the dark- 
ness of the Solid South ; and unw^holesome sectional dis- 
sensions have characterized the campaign of this year that 
we had hoped would be memorable only for happiness — 
and for the cordial universal celebration of the reality of 
the Proclamation — of the revered inscription of Independ- 
ence Bell : Of liberty, throughout the land and unto all the 
inhabitants thereof. 

"We are told with ostentation that the whole South has 
accepted the situation, and is reconstructed forever more. 
The politicians who dragged the people of that section into 
the Confederacy^ terrorizing the whites — who opposed them 
at that time as they do the blacks in this — are convinced 
that they made a mistake in running away from the Na- 
tional Capital when they held majorities in both houses of 
Congress. They have ascertaitied that they took the wrong 
road to reach the supremacy that they believed was their 
birthright. They propose, therefore, leaving vain regrets 
for errors past, to remain in tlie Union, and use the Demo- 
cratic party, their steadfast servant in other days, for their 
lixed purposes. They will not again flee from the fort, 
throwing away in imbecile fury the weapons they hold, 
that they may return in the pride of their nakedness to 



storm Its gates. 



Their desires are as strenuous and their aims as far-reach- 
ing as ever, but they have acquired a better appreciation of 
means to their ends. They prefer the inside of things to 
the outside, and on all questions involving bread and butter, 
there is an enlargement of understanding and an aptitude 
in adjustment. 

We are asked what is the motive of these men, and 
wiicrein is danger to be expected? The abolition of slavery 
is complete and irreversible! Wiiat shall take its place as 
a basis of operations for political enterprises of great pith 
and moment? The answer is, Southern Claims take the 



WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH, 11 

place of slavery as a huge and dominating sectional inter- 
est. They mean more money than there was in all the ne- 
groes in America. It is the flagrant intention that those 
claims shall ultimately inclnde the slaves emancipated by 
the sword, and that there shall be added to them the value, 
according to the estimates of the owners, of the cotton de- 
stroyed, and the corn, green and dry, in the fields and the 
cribs, that was consumed by men and beasts in the National 
service. Then we see coming, like a cloud of grasshoppers, 
myriads of thousand-dollar mules and pianos, and an end- 
less array of velvet parlor furniture and rosewood fence- 
rails. 

The National debt has a conservative influence. Horace 
Greeley said there was no danger that the debt would ever 
be repudiated; it was " too big to be repudiated." AVhy, 
these Soutiiern claims are bigger than the National debt. 
They are the cement of the Solid South. They include the 
losses of the South from the begining— interest calculated 
on all the items. There isn't a Congressman, from the Po- 
tomac, along the Ohio and the Missouri to the Kansas line, 
and down to the Gulf and the Rio Grande, who would dare, 
as a candidate for re-election, to oppose these claims. They 
are the sacred thing of the Solid South. 

Still, slavery is abolished ! It is abolished, no doubt, so 
far as the so-called patriarchal relation goes. Individuals 
will no longer own men, women, and children. The auction 
block for property in man is overthrown, but it is proposed 
to make the persons who have been emancipated from the 
control of masters, Slaves of the States. With this view, 
the blacks have already been disfranchised by the process 
of the pocket-pistol in all States in which they are in the 
majority', with the possible exception of South Carolina; 
and the glitter of the bayonet in that State as opposed to 
the derringer, is the token for tremblings and pertubations 
touchins: the Constitution. These were not felt when 
United States Marshals called for troops to catch fugitive 
slaves, but we became accustomed to them in the days when 
the last Democratic President could find no warrant in law 



1'2 WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 



to resist the seizure of National property by States. The 
camion of South Carolina thundered upon the Star of the 
West wlieu carrying provisions to Fort Sumter, and the 
steamer put out to sea, leaving our soldiers to starve, but 
the Democratic President could not discover in the Consti- 
tution that it would do to shoot back. There occurred a 
change in the administration, and while the Confederate 
cannon were volleying on the fort, the people gave the Con- 
stitution an interpretation that should abide with it forever. 

When the war was over, there was no hanging, no con- 
tiscation of the estates of the architects of rebellion. IsTot- 
withstaiuling the assassination of Lincoln, the spirit of the 
Xorth was kindly. There was tenderness of heart in the 
victors toward the vanquished. After some delays that 
were unfortunate, there was reconstruction, substantially 
upon the basis of general amnesty and impartial sulfrage. 
The one condition exacted before the restoration of the 
Confederates to the political rights they had thrown away 
was, that the emancipated slaves should be enfranchised. 

Now, the bcluiviour of the frecduien, while there were 
armies deciding, in the high debates of battlefields, what 
their future was to be, should have earned the gratitude 
and the affection of the Southern whites. Scenes of servile 
insurrection were not added to the horrors of civil war. 

The black citizens have not been liuiltless. They have 
looked too much to the Government and too little to them- 
selves; but their education was more expensive than in- 
structive. Still, they know some essential things wonderfully 
well. (Jnceapoorold field haiul in Kentucky put the case in a 
few words. It was during the agitation of the " amendment " 
that was 8Ui)p08ed to secure his race the right of suftVage. 
lie was asked in a tone of fierce derision what he intended 
to do with himsullwlien he became a voter, a:id he answered, 
with religious solemnity : " AVell, nuirster, if I gets to vote, 
I will vote as near as I know for them that stood for me." 
That is what is the matter with the black voters. They 
arc the faithful friends of the American Nation, and so far 
as they know (and they have a pretty keen instinct where 



WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 13 

the}^ have not knowledge), they are against the restoration, 
to the position of a ruling class, of the Confederate poli- 
ticians by whom they, and their masters too, were held in 
servitude. 

"When the Confederate Generals surrendered, the grand 
army of the D nited States was disbanded. The everlasting 
reconstruction of the white people of the South was ac- 
cepted as accomplished. The negro armed with the ballot 
— the poor man's proper weapon to defend his humble but 
precious and sacred interests — was to take care of himself. 

The practical proposition of the Solid South, and the 
leading idea of the Democratic party, is to-day that the old 
Confederate army may be reorganized in a private wa}^, 
with concealed weapons — or with displayed arms if their 
arrogance is so excited that they scorn mere pocket-pistol 
warfare — and that this armed force may disfranchise the 
blacks at pleasure, choose Electors, and elect Congressmen 
and Legislatures, and take away from the General Govern- 
ment the only guarantee that in the magnanimous mood of 
unqualified conquest was exacted. 

If Confederate desperadoes may thus possess Congress 
and the Presidency too, and the l^ational authorities have 
no rights that men armed with derringers are bound to re- 
spect, we ought not to be surprised or make any protest 
w'hatever, if called upon to pay the bills of the once dear 
departed but now reinstated Confederacy, even if they 
amount to more than the French indemnity. And we may 
conclude, with the rehabilitation of the Confederacy, and 
its extension to our remotest frontiers, slavery, abolished as 
a personal matter, is re-established as a State institution ; 
that a system of State servitude, to be called apprentice- 
ship, or sonie other and softer name, will speedily be enacted 
and enforced in the interests of Southern peace ; for if the 
reign of terror is to be perpetuated and its scope is to be 
National, it will be necessary to regulate it by law, that 
inducements to assassination may not be so imperative as 
to cause the massacre of a race. 

If we must accept this as the prerequisite of peace in the 
land of the derringer, our gain in the overthrow of the 



14 WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 



Soutberu Confederacy hy force of arms would be tbe privi- 
leo-e of paying.tbe damages inflicted upon tbe Confederates, 
in addition to bearing our own burdens; wbile tbe loss of 
tlie pobticians of tbe Soutb would be tbat of tbe ob- 
ligation to pay tbeir own bills; and tbey would gain 
an enlargement of tbe Confederate domain to tbe remotest 
National limits — a territory wider, witb prerogatives ricber 
tban tbey ever dared to dream of winning by successful 
war. " Peace batb ber victories no less renowned tban 
War. 

Tbe rivers of West Virginia unite ber witb Obio, and tbe 
mountains divide ber from Old Virginia, but in tbe late 
election neither tbe rivers nor tbe mountains could retain 
ber, and sbe gave berself utterly to tbe ancient regime. 
Siie bad no reason to complain of tbe Republican party 
witbin ber borders. AVbile tbe Republicans were in power 
ber attairs were well managed. Wben tbe war was over 
and gentle peace bad fully returned, tbe Confederates were 
all cnfrancbised and tlie people bad a " cbange." Every- 
tbiiig was lovely and of good report, but, as usual, tbe 
Democratic party bad to come into power. It was " tbe 
gaunt wolf waiting at tbe door" of tbe State. But tbere 
is no reform to speak of in connection witb tbe " cbange." 
On tbe contrary, West Virginia bas been as badly governed 
ever since as sbe could well bave been if tbe Carpet-bag- 
gers were in autbority and tbe Scalawags bad given their 
whole attention to i>ublic business. Just now, if tbe peo- 
ple tbere wanted a cbange and reform and econom}-, they 
would bave to try tbe Republican paity ; and, otber tilings 
being equal, tbey would do it gladly, for tbere is nothing 
tbat 80 cures a State of longing for Democratic reformation 
as a brief trial of it. 

It was not love of tbe Southern Confederacy, or of the 
Democratic party, per se, tiiat fixed tbe place of West Vir- 
ginia in tbe Tilden colunm. It was the overbearing influ- 
ence of the Southern War Claims tbat controlled the 
State. Here" is an extract of a letter from Grafton, West 
Virginia, stating the facts, — and I bog tbat you will give 



WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 15 

it your most considerate attention, for it is from a citizen 
of intelligence and responsibility. He says : 

" In the payment of such claims (Southern War Claims), 
West Virginia is more largely interested, in proportion to 
population, than any other State ; and it is because it was 
believed these claims would be paid by the United States 
if Tilden is elected, that the State voted so largely Demo- 
cratic the other day. This is the secret of the result ; this 
is the bottom fact of the situation in this State. 

" In all the strong Democratic counties there are men 
of influence who have claims. They have worked for Dem- 
ocratic success as statesmen with Texas bonds in their 
pockets, worked for annexation and for the §10,000,000 bill. 
' There's millions in it.' Right here in this town I know 
of men who have these claims for property destroyed or 
captured, who worked most earnestly and voted for the 
Democratic ticket on the avowed ground that a Democratic 
success in the United States would assure the payment of 
their claims. But for their influence, the Repubhcan gain 
here would have been even greater than it was. One of 
these ' claims' is for between seven and eight thousand dol- 
lars, for property destroyed aud taken by the Union army ; 
another is for similar damages and for fifteen slaves set 
free. And so on, all around, from hen-roosts to immortal 
intellects. Every one of the owners of these 'claims' is 
an ex-rebel sympathizer, at best. 

"You can judge, hence, how it is in the strong rebel 
counties, where hatred of the Union is not disguised, and 
where pretty much everybody is thirsting for revenge. 
There the enthusiasm in behalf of ' Southern claims,' in 
behalf of making the Yankee pay all the losses of the 
South after all. is simply irrepressible. It is not attempted 
to be concealed, as it is here. And it is this which swept 
all the frontier counties like a tornado — only this and noth- 
ing more." 

The writer of this letter inclosed with it a note of iden- 
tification, and used this language : 

" There is not the slightest doubt in my mind that I here 
state the true reason for the great Democratic victory in 



it) WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 

this State. The immense danger thus threatened by the 
Southern claims is not at all appreciated by the North. If 
it were, there would be no possibility of Tilden getting a 
single Northern State." 

During the recent canvass in Ohio, when the Democrats 
noticed tlie question of the Southern war claims, they, as a 
rule, asserted that there was a constitutional amendment 
that prohibited the payment of those claims. You are aware 
that the fourth clause of the Fourteenth Amendment is the 
only one that has any relation to the subject, and that it re- 
fers to the payment of debt " incurred in aid of insurrec- 
tion or rebellion against the United States," and to " com- 
pensation for slaves," and is not applicable at all to claims 
for damages. 

War claims are among the worst results of war, for they 
can not be cured like wounds inflicted in the shock of bat- 
tle. They are cancerous, and of ceaseless malignancy in 
growth. We must be at pains to see of what items those 
we are discussing consist, and how they develop like tu- 
mors. Here is — 

" Claim No. 3,107. {Before the Claims Commissioners and 
(Jisallowed.) January 18, 1875. Referred to the Committee 
on War Claims, and ordered to be printed. Marie P. Evans, 
of Orleans Parish, Louisiana. Total amount claimed in orig- 
inal petition, S272,590 ; in amended petition, $495,355." 

Here are speciiications, as follows: 

No. 1. 82.'> hhds. centrifugal sugar, of average weight of 1,300 

lbs. net per hhd., being 1,072,.")U0 lbs., at 2;3c. per lb $268,125 

No. 2. 400 bbl.s. golden sirup (molasses), at 40 galls, per bbl., 

making 10,000 galls., at $1.50 per gall 24,000 

500 bbls. sugar-house molasses, at 40 galls, per bbl., making 

20,000 galls., at ?1 20,000 

No. :}. ],(M)Ufnii>ty bbls., at $2 2,000 

No. 4. 3,0(MJ cords of dry wood, at $5 15,000 

No, 5. 02 mules, at $200 12,400 

No. G. 15 wagons, at $150 2,250 

No. 7. 3 carts, at $75 225 

No. 8. 3 drays, at $75 225 

No. 9. 3 gas-tanks (iron), at $100 300 

No. 10. 26,000 bush, corn (in ear), at $1 20,000 



WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 



No. 11. .374 tons fodder (corn blade.s) and hay, at $25 9,350 

No. 12. 5 horses, at §200. 1,000 

No. 13. 5 bbls. brandy, at $400 2,000 

The number of the items is tliirty-two ; of these, 'So. 31 is 
for 145,000 fence rails, made of the most beautiful and ex- 
pensive timber in the world, no doubt. The only thing 
that should surprise us in the bill of particulars is that the 
sixty-two mules were not put at ^1,000 each ! The mod- 
eration of the claimant has not, however, been appreciated ; 
for the claim is in the list of the disallowed. The first 
time it was presented the sum total was but $272,590. The 
amended petition is for §495,355. The efiect of not pay- 
ing in the first place is seen in the growth of 500 hogsheads 
of sugar in the first claim to 1,109 hogsheads in the sec- 
ond, while the price of the sugar expanded from $200 per 
hogshead to §325 per hogshead. The 800 cords of wood 
alleged, in the bill of particulars of 1871, to have been 
taken, grew to 3,000 cords in 1873. Forty mules, at §150 
each, had multi[>lied to sixty-two mules, at §200 each. 
5,000 bushels of corn were developed into 26,600 bushels ; 
500 [)Ounds of bulk pork, in 1871, grew to 5,000 pounds in 
1873; and if Tilden is elected, there is no reason to doubt 
that each item will be multiplied by ten, so that we shall 
have to pay for 50,000 pounds of bulk pork, and so on 
through the list. 

Take another example : 

"Xo. 14,103. Charles G. Kerr, Fitzhugh Lee, and 
George W. C. Lee, executors of Anna M. Fitzhugh, late 
of Alexandria County, Virginia, deceased. 

" Claim filed May 20, 1872. Value of 125,000 cords oak 
and pine tiriiber, cut and taken from the estate of Ravens- 
worth, Fairfax County, by orders of various Quartermas- 
ters, in 1861, '62, '63, '64, and '65, at §3 per cord, §375,000." 

The entire Ravensworth property, 7,826 acres, was as- 
sessed at §78,260 before the war and since, and the Com- 
missioners report the assessed value to be about two-thirds 
of the actual value; but here are §375,000 worth of wood 
cut oti:' a tract of laud worth at most §100,000, and the 



18 WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 



value of the land not in the least impaired. The miracle of 
the loaves and iishes can not be said to rank with this 
achievement. 

Take the claim of ^frs. Annie Whitmore, of Whitfield 
county, Georgia, a bill for whose relief Avas kindly presented 
by the lion. Benoni S. Fuller, of Indiana. The amount 
of this claim is §840,494. Here are specimen points: 

1 horse, which was by good judges estimated $2,300 

35 liorses. $150 •'>,100 

12 young mules, $175 2,100 

4,250 bushels corn, $1.50 tJ,3T5 

50 tons fodder, $15 "50 

10 tons hay, $20 200 

300 acres corn fodder -"tO 

20 head beef cattle, $.50 1,000 

202 bales of cotton, 500 lbs. per bale, taken for hospital pur- 
poses. $1 131,000 

1,338 bales of cotton, 500 lbs. per bale, $1 609,000 

4 parlor sets — 1 garnet velvet, 1 satin, 1 .«ilk, 1 stripe, $300 1,200 

1 parlor set, black mohair 200 

1 ])arlor set, green silk velvet 400 

1 parlor set, plaid, stripe, blue, red, and green empress 3)0 

1 piano, Chickering COO 

1 i)iuno, Steinway grand 800 

The Sfiirit of " conciliation, economy, and reform " dis- 
played in putting down only seven parlor sets of furni- 
ture — one a garnet velvet and another a green silk velvet 
— and of estimating an invaluable horse at $2,300 only 
— should be highly esteemed. Mr. Fuller was re-elected 
to Congress substantially on the merits of this little claim, 
in a strong Democratic district in Southern Indiana, and 
his public career promises to be a brilliant success. 

Among the bills presented to the present House of Rep- 
resentatives by Mr. Bright, of Tennessee, we will look at 
two (Tippod from a list of some hundreds of the same 
general ciiaracter. 

"A bill to pay the Presbyterian church of Mufreesboro, 
Tennessee, SlO,000, said church having been used as a hos- 
pital for sick and wounded Union soldiers. 

"A bill to pay Thomas Hoard $58,01)5 for supplies taken 



WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 19 

and used by the army of the United States from the farm 
of said Hoard (the battle-ground of Stone River), near 
Mufreesboro, Tennessee." 

It is stated, by soldiers familiar with the place, that the 
Presbyterian church at Mufreesboro was not worth more 
than $5,000 when new, and that it was first occupied and 
damaged b}^ the Confederates, who used it as a hospital 
until driven from the town. The bill for damages done on 
the battle-ground of Stone River implies that the national 
troops were the only ones who disturbed the valuable prop- 
erty in that quarter, but the history of the battle does not 
quite corroborate this- flattering presumption. 

However, if the J^ational soldiers were trespassers 
throughout the war, the bill is accounted for, and ought to 
be paid. The next thing, perhaps, will be a bill from the 
old proprietors of the ground in and about the Anderson- 
ville prison-pens, for the trees destroyed by the prisoners 
in their efforts to shelter themselves from the sun and the 
rains. If we guide our feet by the lamps of the Democracy 
and along their peculiar paths of peace, what objection can 
be made to that bill ? 

Persons afiirm, however, that such bills are absurd and 
incredible, and that payment is impossible; and those who 
have attempted to impress upon the public the seriousness 
of the Southern prosecution of war claims have been hooted 
as phantom-fighters. 

Let us see if there is not every possible proof that could 
be given in advance of the accession of the Democratic 
party to power, of the. certainty that these very claims will 
be sharply pressed by a formidable force. Missouri leads 
the way in State action. She created a War Claims Com- 
mission in 1873; and Governor Woodson, in his annual 
message to the General Assembly, January 6, 1875, says : 

" There were presented to the Board of Commissioners 
eleven thousand nine hundred and sixty-one (11,961) claims, 
amounting in the aggregate to $4,844,362.29. Seven thou- 
sand five hundred and fifty-four (7,554) of those claims 
were allowed during the time in which the Board had the 
right to sit, and certificates have been issued therefor, ag- 



20 WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 



gregating the sum of ^2,382,132.67. At the expiration of 
the time fixed by law for the adjustment of the claims 
pending before them, there were a great many claims un- 
acted upon, it proving a physical impossibility for the Com- 
missioners to examine and pass upon all the claims tiled 
within the time prescribed by the act." 

This is the first crop, so great that the handling of it 
was a physical impossibility. As for moral possibilities, any 
sovereign State can swing millions of them. If the Solid 
South succeeds in its enterprise, employing the Democratic 
party to capture the Government, there will be a succession 
of crops, each larger than all the preceding. In the State 
of Georgia the preparation of claims is such a business that 
blank forms to facilitate the work are circulated all over 
the State, and are an indispensable article of stationery. 
A citizen of Hamilton county, Ohio, an old Democrat, re- 
cently returned to his home from Alabama, where he has in- 
terests, ai\d related that when he told the Alabamians that 
he would go for Tilden, they talked to him in such a 
style that he thought it his duty as a good citizen to vote 
the Republican ticket. They denounced the Thirteenth, 
Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution 
as " bayonet amendments." They all said that the Yan- 
kee armies had marched across their farms, and had a stere- 
otyi>ed way of closing, "I have my bill made out, sir, and 
if there is any justice in this country I '11 get every dollar 
of it." There is no numbering these bills, and the appointed 
time for pressing them to payment is when the Democratic 
party takes possession of the Government. 

All the war claims that we have heard of are but the 
first drops of the shower, and the Southern sky is full of 
rain. After the election of Tilden, if that is to be, comes 
the Deluge. 

So impatient were the claimants that they could not wait 
for a pr(>[(itious time to reduce their hopes to legal writing. 
Tiiey have for years been making careful surveys, with a 
view to sapping and mining their way into the ISTational 
Treasury ; and recently they have been vigorously at work 
upon a concerted plan of siege, prepared, it is evident, by 



WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 21 

skilled engineers, who have looked over the whole ground 
and marked out the approaches. 

Mr. Eitchie, of Maryland, April 13, 1872, made a speech, 
in which he arraigned the act of July 4, 1864, " which pro- 
vides for the payment of Southern claims on proof that the 
pro[)erty was actually taken and used by the United States 
army, and that the claimant was loyal to the United States." 
The grounds of his sensitive antagonism to the act were 
thus defined : 

" First — Because the proof required is too strict. 
, "Second — Because it does not provide payment for prop- 
erty damaged and destroyed. 

" Third — Because said act requires proof of loyalty," — 
On which he says : 

" In the bill I have submitted, proof is required only of 
the justice and validity of the claim. This may be regarded 
as a material omission b}' the majority of the House, and 
if its disposition is such that no additional facilities will be 
accorded to claimants unless the qualificatiou referred to is 
added,I would suggest that the bill is within the power of 
this House for such amendment as it may insist upon. I 
can only say for myself that in the light of my sworn obli- 
gation to support the Constitution, as I understand that 
fundamental charter alike of our power and the rights of 
the citizen, I could not recognize in any legislation of my 
offering a discrimination so false in principle, so pernicious 
in example, and so unjust in operation." 

It will be noted that this gentleman had constitutional 
scruples on the point of requiring proof of loyalty ! Come 
down to a later day and a programme more comprehensive. 
On the 30th of June, 1876, Mr. Cabell, of Virginia, reported 
from the House Committee on War Claims the bill [H. 
11., 3,827,] for the relief of Pickrell and Broocks, of Vir- 
ginia. This bill was recommended by the "War Claims 
Committee, and appropriates the sum of $3,524.75 to pay 
these claimants, the net proceeds of tobacco taken from 
them at Wilmington, :N'orth Carolina, March 21, 1865. 
The claim is not of great proportions, but the distinguished 
gentleman from Virginia improved the occasion by laying 



•^2 WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 



down general principles of astounding magnitude. He 
Bays that as one of the claimants had received a special 
pardon from President Johnson, and the other having 
" come within the provisions of the several proclamations 
and general pardon of amnesties, the proof of such pardon 
is equivalent to affirmative proof under the statute of cap- 
tured and abandoned property, that the party never gave 
aid and comfort to the rebellion." 

AVhen we consider the source and the official promulgation 
of this sweeping report, we are bound to regard it as good 
Democratic doctrine. It is recent — it is fresh, and it is. 
strong. It is, that when Andrew Johnson forgave a rebel 
his sins, thenceforth the rebel w\as truly loyal, and always 
liad been so in the eye of the law ! This is certainly the 
nu>st marvelous regeneration of wdiich there is any account 
in the books, sacred or profane. 

Mr. Cabell's report from the Committee on "War Claims, 
goes on to announce that in reference to property taken 
from Southern owners by the Union armies, "the United 
States Government stands in the position of a trustee for 
the owner." 

1 need not pause to speak of the scope of this proposition. 
It rolls over tlie whole case as the waters cover the great 
deep, and all the leviathans of the Confederacy can sport 
therein. 

We will next examine — 

'' House Resolution No. 553, by Hon. W. W. Wilshire, 
Arkansas — 'To facilitate the adjustment and settlement of 
claims of citizens of the United States, for stores and sup- 
plies taken or furnished during the rebellion, for the use of 
the Army of the United States,' including the use and loss 
of vessels and boats, 1)y authorizing suits to be instituted in 
tiie I'nited States Court in the district wherein the property 
was taken or used, such suits to be tried ' by said Courts in 
tlu same manner and by the same rules of evidence as that 
now prescribed by law for the trial of civil causes in the 
Circuit Courts of the United States.' " 

Tliis would refer each batch of claims to the citizens of 
the neighborhood that was despoiled, a scheme that would 



WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 23 

fully meet the requirements of Mr. Cabell, of Virginia, that 
would avoid lacerating the susceptibilities of Mr. Ritchie, 
of Maryland, and that would prevent any severity of strain 
upon a Confederate General who might be Mr. Tilden's 
Secretary of War. 

Mr. Wilshire would abolish the Southern Claims Com- 
mission, and all tests of loyalty, and pay the damages as- 
sessed by juries out of a general appropriation. Of 
course, he has entire contidence in the spirit of reform and 
economy and wise finance, that has always animated the 
juries of Arkansas. 

There are so many resolutions having this general direc- 
tion and bearing, introduced into the House at its late ses- 
sion, that I can not attempt reference to them all ; but as we 
must notice the scheme of the Hon. Haywood Y. Riddle, of 
Tennessee, to make money plenty and times good in the 
South, without further labor by the inliabitants, the follow- 
ing is quoted : 

'' House Resolution I^o. 871, by Hon. H. Y. Riddle, of 
Tennessee — Provides that the testimony of ' any reputable 
citizen ' shall be admitted by the Court of Claims and War 
Department as effectually establishing the fact of appropri- 
ation of property for the use of the armies of the United 
States." 

This not onl}' discards the idea that loyalty has anything 
to do with war claims, but makes one oath by a rebel suffi- 
cient to establish effectually a claim. 

But Mr. Riddle's brightest achievement, looking to the 
prosperity of his section, without toil or spinning, is in the 
introduction, February 28, 1876, of a bill to open the treas- 
ury of the United States to make money plenty in the 
South — a bill referred to the Judiciarj' Committee, not, of 
course, to be reported until it can be favorably moved on. 
It is— 

" H. R. 2364. A bill directing compensation for the use 
and occupation of property by the United States army dur- 
ing the late war : 

" Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives of the United States of America in Congress assem- 



24 WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 



bled, that the Secretary of AVar be, and he is hereby au- 
thorized to allow reasonable compensation to all citizens of 
the United States for the use and occupation of their prop- 
erty by the United States army, or any part thereof, during 
the lute civil war, in the same manner and under the same 
regulations as compensation is now allowed for Quarter- 
master stores used by said army; provided, however, that 
the atHdavit of the claimant, supported by the competent 
testimony of any reputable citizen, shall be sufiicient proof 
to establish the fact of the use and occupation of such 
property by said army. But it is not the intention of this 
act to limit the parties to the amount of proof herein speci- 
lied ; but other and additional testimony hiay be taken to 
establish the fact of the use and occupation, and the rental 
value of the property occupied." 

Mr, Riddle is running for re-election to Congress, and 
this bill is the princii»al plank in his platform. It is a 
popular plank. He addressed the people of Jamestown, 
Tennessee, September 28, and claimed that all losses caused 
by Federal troops or by the Federal Government should be 
paid alike ; that " all Southern people are now loyal," and 
that no distinction should be made in the settlement of 
claims against the Government, but everybody should be 
paid; and pledged himself to work to that effect. Ilis 
meetings have recently been attended by a phonographic 
reporter, but he declines to speak when there is such an 
intrusion. He need not talk any more to his constituents, 
however. They fully understand him. His district is the 
Fourth Tennessee, and his popularity — growing out of his 
celebrity as the aflvocate of war claims, on the ground that 
all citizens are ecpially loyal and always have been, and that 
there can be no just distinctions in the law — is so great that 
he has no opi)Ositi<)n. The lion. K. II. Cox, who attempted 
to compete with him, has retired from the canvass. 

The report that we quote of Mr. Riddle's Jamestown 
sjtcech is from a business letter, and that gentleman's great 
jtopularity was accounted for in the remark that the pay- 
ment of war claims, according to his policy, would " make 
money i)lcnty and times good in the South." The people 



WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 25 

of New York may be interested to mark this and inquire, 
at whose expense the benefactions are to flow from the 
pecuniary horn-of-pleuty, and who is to have the " usufruct" 
of the horn ? 

Mr. Ritchie, of Maryland, complained, twelve years ago, 
that the proof required on Southern claims was too strict, 
and that damaged property could not be included, while the 
crowning trouble was an unconstitutional requirement that 
loyalty should be shown. 

Mr. Cabell, of Virginia, from the Committee of War 
Claims of the present House, reports that the pardon of a 
rebel is afiirmative proof that he was always loyal, and de- 
clares that the United States Government is in the position 
of a trustee of the Confederate claimants for property 
taken in the war. 

Mr. AVilshire, of Arkansas, would facilitate the settle- 
ment of claims by trials by jury, so that the tracks of our 
armies should be followed by juries of the respective neigh- 
borhoods through which they passed, agreeing upon dam- 
ages to be distributed among themselves. 

Mr. Riddle, of Tennessee, would take testimony in claims 
cases without giving consideration to the question of loy- 
alty, and he would allow compensation to all citizens of the 
United States for the use and occupation of their property 
by the United States army, upon the proposition that all 
discriminations in tlie law against disloyalists are unjust 
and offensive. 

Taking together Mr. Ritchie, of Maryland, Mr. Cabell, 
of Virginia, Mr. Wilshire, of Arkansas, and Mr. Riddle, 
of Tennessee, it is but just to those gentlemen to say that 
they seem to have left little in the nature of preliminaries 
to look after — and there never has been a whisper that 
they did not have the w^arm approbation of the folks at 
home. 

The record of Mr. Riddle in Congress seems to his con- 
stituents a very handsome one. He is credited w^ith a good 
phrase asserting universal loyalty, and equal rights for all 
in war claims. There is no better Democratic doctrine 
than his, for the practical application of it is that wherever 



26 WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 



the Xatioiial armies marched there is a Confederate harvest 
to be slathered. 

And it woukl be well if these cool and learned gentle- 
men, who aftect to sneer away this aspect of the claims 
question, would kiiully condescend to tell the people of 
New York what ai-gument or attribute the Democratic 
party has, that would resist the war-claims policy of the 
Solid South, as it is defined in the legislation that Mr. 
Kiddle has proposed. 

If we begin by admitting that the Union was a Confed- 
ei-acy— that the election of Lincoln was an offense — the 
Southern campaigns John Brown raids on a large scale, 
and the abolition of slavery and the enfranchisement of 
the freedmen, capital outrages— we must end by placing 
the South on an equality with the North in money mat- 
ters; that is, we must pay the Southern war debts and 
claims of every name and nature. Or, from our stand- 
point, we must pay for the war over again, and something 
more, for the South was the greater sufferer; and if we 
would conciliate on the basis of having done a wrong, we 
must not complain if we have to pay an indemnity equal 
to the damage we have done. 

The Southern people say they desired to go apart, and 
were compelled to remain. They say to us : " You marched 
through our country destroying our property, and we w^ere 
nnable to retaliate. You doubled your money in bonds, 
while we lost all that we put into our bonds ; and you gave 
tlio blacks the right to confiscate through taxation the little 
we bad when the war was over. You forced us into the 
Union, and we propose to stay. Now, we are as loyal as 
you are — as good as you are. We are poor. Above all 
things we need money. Here are the bills for the ruin 
that you wrought ! If we are equals under the law, the 
payment of these claims is but fair — and then why should 
not our cri[»pled boys have pensions as well as yours ?" 

They need the money badly enough. They believe they 
ought to have it. Is it public policy to pay it? Only a 
fraction of it could come from the South itself. Do you, 
ht-re in Now York, think it will be in the interest of Re- 



WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 27 

form, and especially Economy, to pay your share of it? 
Are you unwilling to be taxed to this end ? Would you 
prefer to go with the Greenbackers and issue legal tenders 
to meet all Southern demands, make money plenty, and 
give us another experience of ^var times in Wall street? 
If not, you should take care not to go with the Solid South 
— the new shape of the Southern Confederacy — in this 
critical campaign. The Southern excitement touching war 
claims is not as yet very noisy, but it is intense and pro- 
found. It has been restrained by every prudential consid- 
eration that could influence men convinced that they have 
been wronged and resolved to be righted, and yet it is 
submitted there is ample testimony before the country to 
determine the action of prudent citizens. It were easy to 
specify circumstances in corroboration of the proof until 
you would wear}' with the recital. A Southern Eepubli- 
can, writing from the State of Mississippi, October 3,1876, 
to Hon. Warner M. Bateman, District Attorney of the 
Southern District of Ohio, says: 

" If we should attempt to organize our party in this 
State, and advocate the support of Hayes and Wheeler, it 
wHiuld cause riot and bloodshed all over the State, for the 
White Line Kebels are determined to carry the State, 
though w^e have a clear majority of thirty thousand at a 
fair election. Any excuse to deprive Republicans of their 
rights as American citizens is a source of great consolation 
to the White Liners." 

The writer adds, it is the purpose of the controlling spir- 
its of that State to " remunerate themselves out of the 
public treasury for losses sustained by the war." If these 
things occur in the green tree, wdiat may not be expected 
in the dry wood ? 

Can any people having saving common sense atFord to 
disregard these claims, the certainty and immensity of 
which are attested by proposed legislation, manifestly pre- 
pared to remove all the safeguards of the Treasury, while 
they are notoriously backed by the passionate and exacting 
public opinion of the section whence they spring ? So un- 
equivocal are the claims, and so prodigious are they (the ag- 



28 WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 



grc^ate represented in the various bills of si.ccial and general 
TegislatiGn exceeding two thousand five hundred millions of 
dollars)— so distinct are the principles upon which they are 
based, and so consonant arc those principles with the char- 
acter of the party that must take the responsihility of 
tiiein.— while the line of argument by which they are jus- 
tified is staked out quite to the horizon— that fair notice 
has been served upon the country that they are to be pros- 
ecuted with the entire strength of the United South. And 
it is distinctly indicated that the price of the Southern 
support of the Democratic party is the service of the party 
as the claim agency for that section. 

The ready assertion of the average Democratic local pol- 
itician of the Xorth is that the party would, if placed in 
control of the Government, be responsible to the country 
for the success of the Administration, and could not con- 
sent to consider the war claims in the shape and to the ex- 
tent that we suggest. It is thus assumed, in the first place, 
that the Democratic party is, where the Solid South is con- 
cerned, a free agent. I do not believe it is so. The South 
has the force of a clear purpose, an inflexible will, an un- 
appeasable animosity, and the habit of command, as well as 
a hungry sense of a right to have a square meal at home ; 
and it will have, as it has had, its way with the party. 

It is said the Democratic party would quickly destroy 
itself by taking up the Southern claims, and must, in cold- 
blooded reason, be credited with too strong an instinct of 
self-preservation to swiftly rush to certain slaughter. But 
this identieal party, backed by a majority merely in the 
South, withstood for years the odium of the Fugitive Slave 
Law, and the ruling caste in it at last felt strong enough to 
re[ioal the Missouri Compromise and attempt the national- 
ization of slavery. Give these partisans the whole South 
with its enlarged representation — every Congressional Dis- 
trict — and i)lace in their hands the army for reorganization, 
with the cbance of restoring the Confederate leaders to 
tiieir old regiments ; let them rebuild the navy and use the 
vast civil patrcniage of the government, extravagantly 
extended as it has been in the last sixteen years — add to 



WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. * 29 

this the "solid vote" that the CatlioHc Telegraph of Cin- 
cinnati promised tlie party ; let one wing of the Democratic 
army rest u[»on Hichmond and the otlier upon Rome; and 
reckon upon the arts of Demagoguery that would harness 
in one team the fanatics of the Ultramontane and the Com- 
munist schools — and we are not sure that the Democrac}- — 
always the regulars in our politics and never subjected to 
discipline more rigorously than now — could defy the power 
of enlightened public opinion for a tedious term of years. 
It is quite certain that if this powerful party is placed in 
possession of the General Government by the casting vote 
of the State of New York one week from Tuesday next — 
and that is precisely the contingency that the people of this 
State should have in mind — no matter how profligate and 
reckless the Administration might be, it could not be over- 
thrown without a long and stormy, and perhaps a danger- 
ous struggle. 

Give the Democratic party the power that with the help 
of New York it may grasp, and there would prevail 
through the whole range of official life, and in the ranks 
of the long array of those who get their living out of pol- 
itics, an intolerant assertion of Party Infallibility. The 
despotism would be of iron grip, and any attempt to dis- 
turb it would be denounced as resembling old-fashioned 
Abolitionism in its sectional aspect, as threatening another 
incendiary raid upon the Holy Confederacy of the Solid 
South, and as a reckless assault upon the sacred peace of 
the sunny land that reposes under the undisputed sway of 
pocket lirearms. 

I trust we shall not now, or ever, try the costly experi- 
ment of committing the country to this course. But there 
are good citizens who desire to take this crisis quietly, who 
are making themselves content with saying that the shrewd 
men at the head of the Democratic party are too cautious to 
impose the taxes that would be required to raise the money 
to pay the Southern war claims. It has not perhaps oc- 
curred to them — -though many of them, no doubt, take a 
deep interest in the speedy resumption of specie payments 
— that the claimants might be content with " more green- 



30 WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 



backs." They have not seen that the Kag-baby and 
the Solid South with her solemn claims were made for 
each other. They have not studied the history of the Ohio 
campaign in 1875, which the inflationists — meaning mis- 
chief mountain high — started with the expectation of 
sweeping the country, putting forth as their phitform the 
Confederate system of finance — the very system that made 
money so abundant in the South, while the Southern armies 
were still strong, that a pair of boots cost a thousand dol- 
lars. The inevitable way to pay the Confederate war claims 
is with legal-tender paper. Those claims fortuitously offer 
the solution of the difficulty of the rag-money maniacs in 
distributing new issues. Bales of thousand-dollar notes 
will be wanted to pay the toll of our armies on the turn- 
jtikes in the sacred soil, and to compensate those wdio were 
conquered for all their losses and sorrows ; and as the cost 
of producing a thousand-dollar note is not greater than 
that of a one-dollar note, we shall have big money printed, 
and W'ith it celebrate our " wise finance " to the ends of the 
earth. We shall put the stamp of the United States u23on 
all the paper that the emergency, which can always be 
found, calls for. In the language of the platform of the 
immortal Inflationists in Ohio, we shall " make the vol- 
ume of currency equal to the wants of trade." This 
will give all the gamblers and speculators, and all the 
ravenous beasts of prey that consume the substance of 
the industrious and the poor, a harvest of spoil and 
a carnival of indulgncee; but there will be plenty of 
money in the land at last, and the South will ''get even" 
with the North for the war. The finances of the United 
States will be equalized with those of the Southern Oonfed- 
eracy. Confederate bonds and National bonds w'ill belong 
in a common abyss. The era of the perfect equality of cit- 
izens and sections will come — when we are all fallen into 
the bottomless [)it of bankruptcy together. 

Would Governor Tilden, as President of the United 
States, consent to such a catastrophe? I am not here to 
speak of the personal character of Governor Tilden. I 
suppose he is as well known in New York as Governor 



WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 31 



Hayes in Oliio, and I leave hiiu to 3'on. Grant him all the 
good qualities his friends believe him to possess, and he 
conld not be the master of the Democratic part}-. There 
is a stupendous Devil in that party that will not be mas- 
tered. As to civil service reform, a Democratic President 
could not resist the demand to turn everybody out, to make 
room for as many of his party as possible ; and it is unrea- 
sonable to hold that the public business conld be seriously 
thought of. Why, if there was to be a Democratic Presi- 
dent inaugurated, the crowd of office-seekers around the 
Public Buildings in Washington would be like that of the 
sight-seers at the Centennial on Pennsylvania's da3^ Fancy 
an old gentleman like Governor Tilden, not feeble, perhaps, 
but certainly not robnst, resisting the mad onset of this 
hungry multitude, in the name of civil service reform ! 
The attrition would be too great for any human endur- 
ance. 

It is remarkable in our annals that there has more than 
once been a dramatic removal of a President who stood in 
the way of the pronounced policy of the most advanced 
thinkers of the party of the Solid South. General Harri- 
son, having John Tyler behind him, was speedily taken 
hence. General Taylor, after the development of his op- 
position to the Cotton States Conspirators, was suddenly 
called away. James Buchanan was poisoned with the rats 
at the jSTational Hotel, but through strength of constitution 
was spared to see that the Illation had no right to preserve 
itself — and his health was good, while the country was 
read}' to perish. K Governor Tilden should enter into an 
unseemly antagonism with the more active and potent in- 
iluences of his party, I apprehend that his strength would 
soon be shaken and fretted away in the severe friction of 
his position, and might fail him altogether; that he would 
be as unable to withstand, through a Presidential term, the 
racket of the contending patriots as Harrison was — or that 
he might find a midsummer's cherry-pie lunch as fatal as 
Tajdor found it. Even if Governor Tilden means real re- 
form, we know that his party does not; and so great an 
interest should not hang by the thread of one life. And it 



32 AVAli CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 



Tiklen were not, where in the world could his party lind a 
Kotbrmcr? The people of Xew York arc not, I think, en- 
amored of the " wise iinance " of the Governor of Indiana, 
where the doctrine is taught that the leaves of the syca- 
more, with the United States stamp upon them, are " real 
money." 

Governor Seymour recommends the people to elect a 
Democratic President, hy way of keeping up a division of 
responsibility in the drjKirtments of the Government. I 
fear, if tlie experiment were tried, that the result would not 
ai>prove his judgment. It is hard to separate Senates from 
E.xecutive Power. The Senate of the United States would 
be moved, as by the attraction of gravitation, to harmony 
with the White House. 

Then the Supreme Court is not the invulnerable barrier 
against Executive usurpation and sectional aggression that 
it stands for in the popular estimation. A very respectable 
minority of the Judges are Democratic. Others are ap- 
jiroaching the time of life when not only retirement is 
thought of, but provision is made for it. The extent of the 
country, and the accunmlation of business suggest reorgan- 
ization, and an increase in the num1)er of tlie Judges. 

A Democratic President and House would have the 
Senate and the Sujireme Court also, within two years, if not 
earlier. And wlio can believe that in this case — with the 
united and detei-mincd Confederate South as the bottom 
fact and the impelling force of the party in power — the 
amendments to the Constitution could stand ? The equality 
asserted by tlie politicians of the South — the equality of 
the Rebellion with the Authorities — the equal rights in their 
Fathers' House of the Confederate with the National sol- 
diers — the equal rights of the States that seceded with 
tliose that adhered — the personal susceptibilities of the 
vSouthern leaders — the policy of the Feast of the Fatted 
Calf — do not mean anything less than that the war amend- 
ments shall be wi[ied from the Constitution. It is not " the 
Constitution as it is," that commands the veneration of the 
Democratic party. It is the old Constitution — the Consti- 
tution as it was, over which they asserted an exclusive right 



WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 33 

of interpretation, that they revere and vvonld restore — and 
that they would ai^ain construe in their own, old way. 
Then Ave would ail be " loyal," except those wlio smote 
sovereign States to the dust, and they declared the mur- 
derers of States and the minions of despotism, might at last 
be forgiven by the exalted Confederates. They could only 
be forgiven, however, on the ground that their errors were 
involuntary — that their trespasses upon sacred soil must be 
charitably charged to youthful enthusiasm and helpless 
ignorance of the Constitution. And we should all be called 
to remember that the great and only exponents of that in- 
strument dwell in the South, entitled to the dignity of a 
dynasty in the rare enjoyment of Restoration to their do- 
nunions. There is no capacity within the Democratic party 
to resist the programme of the Solid South, for, as they 
concede its justice, the assertion of its inexpediency must 
be in vain. 

The change that the people desire is a change for the 
better — a reformation, not a revolution — and the econ- 
omy called for could hardly be found in doubling the 
I^ational debt. I believe we could count upon a whole- 
some change — upon an economical, honorable, high-minded 
administration, if Governor Hayes were elected President ; 
and I feel it may be worth while, under the circumstances, 
to speak of my personal knowledge of the man. I have 
been acquainted with him about a quarter of a century, and 
he improves upon acquaintance. He and I lived in the 
same ward for several years, and belonged to the Cincinnati 
Literary Club — the only society of which, outside of college 
and army associations, he ever was a member. 

The story that he was a Know-Kothing, repeated in 
various forms, does not resemble the truth in any shape it 
has taken. 

I was in consultation with him in March, 1856, in organ- 
izing a People's Movement, the primary object of which 
was to defeat the Know-JSTothing party in Cincinnati. We 
met in the office of Stephen Molitor, the leader of the 
Liberal Germans at that time ; and, though it is more than 
twenty years ago, I remember the apt remark of Hayes, as 



34 WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 



some of tliose enlisted with us were willing themselves to 
he caiuliilates, that the people would prohahly be more im- 
pressed with the iitness for office of a man if he was not 
himself active in making the ticket, lie was to have been 
called to preside at the meeting that we appointed to pre- 
sent the cause of Reform to the people, but the Know- 
Nothings took possession of the hall by a concerted move- 
ment of delegations from their Lodges; and they had only 
this measure of success to console themselves withal, for 
they were defeated in the election of the April following, 
and their prestige in Cincinnati was broken. 

"When Colonel Hayes came home after the battle of South 
Mountain, bad!}* wounded, with his shattered arm in a sling, 
lie was asked to attend a public meeting to aid in getting 
his ward "out of the dratt." lie at iirst declined to go, 
hnt as liis ohl neighbors insisted, he consented, and was 
called u[»on for a speech. His opening remark was that it 
had been his preference, glad as he was to see those about 
hirti, not to be present on that occasion, for he was not cer- 
tain that he symitathized with the object for which they as- 
sembled. The first duty of the people was to fill up the 
wasted ranks of the army. If the object of the meeting 
was to send to the field the number of men that the order 
for the draft called for in the ward, he was heartily with 
them; but if it was the policy to clear the ward on paper, 
without reference to the number of recruits furnished, he 
did not desire that they should succeed. 

It was immediately ascertained that the object of the 
meeting was not at all that the able-bodied men of the ward 
should escape the draft, but to send the material for good 
soldiers to the front ! It would not have been suspected by 
any one looking in upon the meeting, that the wounded 
officer in weather-beaten blue clothes — a common soldier's 
blouse, with a war-worn eagle on the shoulder; — the officer 
with a blue eye that kindled as he spoke, and a voice with 
the ring of martial music in it — was a man likely to be ac- 
cused of lacking a will and ways of his own. 

Many earnest [leople have for some years made a close 
study of civil service reform, and the theory is generally 



WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 35 

accepted that this sort of reform, at least, is desirable. The 
language of Governor Hayes, in accepting the Cincinnati 
nomination, is on this subject singularly explicit, and those 
who had given the methods of the reform their closest at- 
tention, were struck with the fact that Ha3'es wrote about 
it as if he had been thinking of it for himself. And so he 
had. He commenced the work of civil service reform in 
his first term as Governor of Ohio. 

Understanding experimentally the question, the words of 
his letter of acceptance sped to the center of the mark like 
rifle-balls, showing the "white disc" at every shot. One 
of his well-taken points, after his first election, in 1868, was 
that minorities should have representation in elective boards. 
In 1870, he urged upon the Legislature the passage of a law 
incorporating this " measure of reform," and the law was 
secured and is retained, proving highh^ useful. He carried 
the principle of minority representation into his appoint- 
ments of public boards and oflicers, and did it to an extent 
that made enemies in his own part}'. He has pursued the 
same policy in his third gubernatorial term, reappointing 
nine Democrats, appointees of Governor Allen, to salaried 
positions in the penal and benevolent institutions of the 
State. In making out the Supreme Court Commission, he 
appointed three Democrats, and when the Republican Leg- 
islature created a Police Board in Cincinnati, the Governor 
appointed a Democrat on the Board ; and he has had a 
c)ever faculty in finding a few places for Liberal Republi- 
cans, who are not now, I understand, in possession of a 
party of their own! Those who have known Governor 
Hayes loiigest, and have had the closest opportunities for 
observation, are the most positive of his friends, in the 
judgment that if he is elected President, he will have a 
very large influence in the administration. 

There is already an outcry from the South that those 
who are unwilling to concede that the w'ar was fought in 
vain, are narrow and bitter; and the}'' are supposed to have 
inherited the sectional opprobrium once attached, in the 
conceit of the Confederates, to the opponents of the exten- 
sion of slavery — yet there has been nothing since Lincoln 



36 WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 



at Gettysburg, in better temper, or with liner insight, or in 
happier phrase, than the i)assage relating to the Sonth in 
the letter of Governor Hayes aceeiiting the Cincinnati nom- 
ination. His sense ofjnstice and sentiment of generosity — 
a brave man's respect for the brave, a strong man's sympa- 
thy with misfortune,— shine through the clear sentences ; 
and taking him all in all, I feel warranted in hopefulness 
that if he becomes our Chief Magistrate, we may find in 
him the gift of statesmanship for the healing of the Nation. 
Citizens of the State of !N"ew York: The lesson of the 
war that never should depart from us is, that the American 
people have no exemption from the ordinary fate of human- 
ity. If we sin, we must sufter for our sins, like the Empires 
tliat are tottering and the Nations that have perished. Six- 
teen years ago we were drifting into war, and, though the 
current was like the Niagara rai)ids, few among us felt that 
it was irresistible, and saw the shores of the land of peace 
and plenty recede, or heard the swelling roar of the cata- 
ract. Whither are we drifting in these Indian summer 
days? Upon what portentous stream is the Ship of State? 
Is it sailing 

"Through channels measureless by man, 
Down to a sunless sea?" 

There is in the prescribed form of counting the Electoral 
votes cast, or certified to be cast, for President, an uncer- 
tainty tljat, in the state of the country, may be fitly de- 
scribed as a peril. The houses of Congress are already at 
variance. They quarreled on this subject when the liepub- 
licans had a majority in both, and the vote of the disputed 
State made no difference in the general result. The joint 
rules, including the twenty-second, have been abolished, 
and there is oidy the Constitutional provision as a guide. 
In a L'ontingency that is not only not impossible, but not 
improbMbk', there is certain to be a disagreement involving 
a disputed Presidential elcetion, whieh would be a calamity 
without i»recedent and beyond calculation. Thoughtful 
citizens long ago, feeling this possibility as a i)alpable 
tliougli distant terror, have prayed that the Presidential 
elections might always be decisive — and God grant that 



WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 37 

they may. But we are pressing closely upon the danger in 
the dark. The October elections have not, as in other 
days, settled the question of the Presidenc3\ What if the 
November election also should be inconclusive? What if 
the result of the question of Tilden or Hayes for President 
rested upon a Southern State — upon Mississippi or South 
Carolina, with the Derringer in one and the Bayonet in the 
other ; and the heated politicians, gathered at Washington, 
and desperate, should Hy at eacli other's throats, and let 
slip the dogs of war? A disputed Presidential election 
would Mexicanize us. There is incalculable ruin in it. If 
the New York electoral vote is given the Democratic can- 
didates, we are imminently threatened with this degrada- 
tion. If New York is Republican, the danger is over. 

The whole duty of the Republicans of the State will be 
performed, for they know their responsibility, and value 
their privilege. It would appear also that the good citizens 
who do not "give up to party what was meant for man- 
kind," see that the safety of the country demands the de- 
feat of the Democratic party, and will be happy to admin- 
ister to it the final stroke of fate, and tlius open with 
auspicious fortune the Second Century of the Republic. 



THE ONLY POINT IN TILDEN S LETTER WHICH REQUIRES ANALY- 
SIS REVIEWED — THE SUPREME COURT AND THE CLAIMS — THE 
DEMOCRATIC WAY TO MAKE TIMES GOOD AND MONEY PLENTY. 

To the Editor of the World : 

In the leading article of this morning's issue of your 
journal I am called upon as an " expert " in Southern 
claims, and asked what I have to say in reply to your re- 
marks on my Cooper Union address. I venture to assume 
that you want to hear from me, and avail myself with much 
pleasure of the opportunity that your call affords, to notice 
certain lines of commentary upon that address, that have 
a tendency to misdirect the attention of the public. The 
feeling that I experience of obligation to you for this call 
is akin to the sense of grateful appreciation that I enjoyed 



38 WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 



of the timeliness of Governor Tilden's letter, in which, on 
the morning of my deliverance on Southern claims, he 
kindly testified that the subject to which I was about ad- 
dressing myself was the business and burning question of 
the day. 

I do not claim to be an "expert" in Southern claims, 
but my attention has been for some time directed to them, 
and I iiave been deeply impressed by their magnitude and 
by the threatening force that is behind them, while I have 
been surprised by the lack of general understanding of the 
extent and imminence of the danger that appears in the 
levity or indifference with which the matter has until now 
been treated in this part of the country. Governor Tilden 
is not a maii who lacks capacity in affairs, and his letter of 
the 24th shows that while his courage may be shaken he 
has not lost the clearness of his faculty of apprehension or 
the cunning of his right hand. In the contingency of 
Democratic success, if there is anything in the performance 
of the promises that letter contains, that proves his an- 
nouncement of the "futility" of the "self-imposed re- 
straints" of candidates to have been an error in his case — 
if there happens to be anything within his capacity that 
liinders the Solid South in its movement to " get even " 
in money with the JSTorth for the war — I promise to take 
the sincerest satisfaction in recognizing it, and to give him 
all the help I can command ; for I am sure in that case he 
will stand in great need of friends not of his party. 

There arc half a dozen lines only in Governor Tilden's 
letter that seem to require analysis. The quotations from 
the Constitution and his message are irrelevant, but he 
says : 

"No claim for any loss or damage incurred by disJoyal 
pcr.-oiis arising from the late war, whether covered by the 
Fourteenth Amendment or not, will be recognized or paid. 
The cotton tax will not be refunded. I shall deem it my 
duty to veto every bill providing for the assumption or pay- 
ment of any such debts, losses, damages, claims, or for the 
refunding of any such tax." 

Governor Tilden has neglected to notice that the advo- 



WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 39 

cacy of the war claims in the South is based upon the 
theory that " we are all loyal now ;" and he has only to 
accept this favorite Southern doctrine of the day, and the 
declaration by Mr. Cabell, of Virginia, in his report from 
the Committee on "War Claims, that the loyalty that results 
from official pardon is retroactive, to justify himself in not 
vetoing any of the acts of legislation that he specifies. 

I quoted, in the Cooper Union address, the report, on 
the 30th of June, 1876, from the House Committee on War 
Claims that accompanied the bill for the relief of Pickrell 
and Broocks. Mr. Cabell said in it that when a claimant 
had a special pardon, and was within the provisions of the 
several proclamations and general pardon of amnesties, the 
proof of such pardon was "equivalent to affirmative proof 
under the statute of captured and abandoned property, that 
the party never gave aid and comfort to the rebellion," 
Therefore, any claim preferred by a pardoned rebel would 
be a loyalist's claim under the law, and Governor Tilden's 
promise to veto the claims of disloyal persons would not 
have effect in their cases ; and there are very few rebels 
now of any other sort. 

Mr. Cabell also stated that the United States Govern- 
ment stood, for " property taken," in the position of trustee 
for the owners. The World quotes a decision of Chief 
Justice Waite, and contends that he holds precisely the 
doctrine announced by Mr. Cabell. If this were so, it 
would justly increase the public disquietude about South- 
ern claims, for it would appear that the highest judicial 
tribunal in the country had opened wide the gate for the 
Confederate advance upon the Treasury ; and this would be 
quick and thorough corroboration of my guarded expres- 
sions of a fear that the Supreme Court was not to be relied 
upon as an invulnerable barrier. I thought the process of 
reorganization would be required before the Court could 
reach the point that, according to the World, it has already 
passed. 

With respectful deference, however, to the legal talent 
of the World, I submit that Waite's decision that the Gov- 
ernment stands in the position of trustee for persons who, 



40 WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 



under a special act of Congress, were entitled to the pro- 
ceeds of captured and abandoned property, " and for those 
whom it (the government) should thereafter recognize as 
entitled "—words the world is at pains to print in italics- 
is far from being as comprehensive as Mr. Cabell's report 
that the Government was the trustee for the owners of all 
" property taken " for the use of the army, and that a rebel 
with Andrew Johnson's pardon was in possession of " af- 
iirmative proof" that he " never gave aid and comfort to 
the rebellion." I do not care to waste a word in discussing 
with anybody the political character of the Supreme Court. 
I am only concerned to show the people that if they place 
the Democratic party in power, there are no sufficient re- 
straints to prevent the " Solid South " from making a raid 
on the Treasury of the United States; and I thank the 
World for the assistance it has unwittingly given in mak- 
ing conspicuous this important fact, and throwing under a 
strong light Mr. Cabell's very significant report. 

Reference is made to the " contrivances of Congress," in 
18G3, touching "captured and abandoned property," but I 
am not in the least degree anxious to show that when the 
liepublicans were in power in Congress they made a per- 
fect record. I am aware of the misconduct of Republicans 
in and out of Congress, and have spent a good deal of time 
and labor in attempting to persuade them of the errors of 
their ways. The "contrivances" that are of interest at 
this time are those of the Confederates to obtain out of the 
people at large compensation for their losses during the 



war, 



In 1872 (April 13), Mr. Ritchie, of Maryland, denounced 
tlie act of July 4, 1864, that restricted payments for " prop- 
erty taken " to loyal claimants, because there were strict 
requirements that proof should be had not only of actual 
taking, l)ut of loyalty ; and because provision was not nxade 
to pay for property damaged and destroyed. Mr. "Wilshire, 
of Arkansas, in House Resolution (last session) No. 553, 
desires to "facilitate the adjustment and seltlement " of 
claims, and proposes the abolishment of the Claims Com- 
mission, and that the jury of the vicinage shall be called 



WAK CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 41 

to levy damages. Mr. Riddle, of Tennessee, has introduced 
a bill directing " compensation for the use and occupation " 
of property "to all citizens;" and to facilitate getting at 
the public money, one witness is declared enough to " ef- 
fectually establish the fact " of the appropriation of prop- 
erty. These are among the contrivances to turn over the 
property of the people of the United States to Southern 
rebels, as "indemnity" for the "aggressive war" made" 
upon them by the Nation. 

Mr. Riddle, of the Fourth Tennessee District, the author 
of the bill to expedite the payment of the claims of (Con- 
federates, has been made so popular by his urgency in their 
behalf that his competitor has witlidrawn from the canvass, 
and the legislation that Mr. Riddle proposes is regarded as 
the way to " make times good and money plenty." Now, 
Mr. Riddle and Governor Tilden would not be troubled to 
reach an understanding and co-operate in the interests of 
" reform and economy." Mr. Riddle would not pay the 
claims of disloyalists. He, too, would veto such things. 
He stands upon a broad principle. He discounts Mr. Ca- 
bell's report that a pardoned rebel has affirmative proof 
that he was always lo3'al. He says, " all Southern ])eople 
are loyal now," and always were so in the eye of the law. 
Can a decision by Chief Justice Waite be found covering 
this ground also ? Accept it, and Tilden's promises pass 
away, and the Solid South comes to the front for its in- 
demnity. 

You tell us : " The great majority of the South does not 
seek any payment of Southern claims." You are mistaken. 
There are tens of thousands of war claims carefully pre- 
pared in the South awaiting, with the Wilshire resolution 
and the Riddle bill, to accept, according to Mr. Cabell, from 
their " trustee " pecuniary redress for all grievances. Doug- 
lass Jerrold said of the soil of Australia, that if you tickled 
it with a hoe it would laugh with a harvest. It is the pe- 
culiarity of the Southern soil that wherever it was tickled 
by a United States bayonet there is an eruption of Con- 
federate claims ; and the Solid South, if the Democratic 
party obtains possession of the Government, will speed- 



42 ^VAR CLAIMS OF THE SOFTH. 



ilv disentangle the "futile*' technicalities of Governor 
Tilden's letter, interposed in the newspapers between them 
and the Treasury when the South was utterly committed 
to him, and the Presidential election was plainly to be de- 
cided by Xew York. 

You speak of the already heavy taxation of the South, 
and that the people of that section would not tax them- 
selves to pay their own claims. The plea of the South is 
poverty. But the plan is to establish equality in money 
matters with the Xorth. Three-fourths of the revenue out 
of which the claims would be paid must come from the 
States that adhered to the Union in the war. 

And do you forget that a vast majority of the Western 
Democrats are fully persuaded that the way to make the 
people happy and wealthy, to make '• times good and money 
plenty," is to print *• more greenbacks ?" They desire to 
"• make the amount of currency equal to the wants of 
trade." They would have war times in Wall street in 
time of peace. Governor Tilden yielded the point that the 
date fixed for resumption should be repealed ; and some 
knowledge of Western Democrats leads me to believe that 
if he keeps their favor, he has but taken the first step in a 
long walk of concessions on the currency question, in 
which he will have to unlearn the teachings of his forty 
years of public discussion of that range of subjects. 

In the event of a Democratic Administration, the Solid 
South and the Solid Mississippi Valley would be united on 
the basis of more greenbacks to pay Southern Claims and 
carry out the rebel and inflation programme ; and the fact 
that the inevitable end must be general repudiation, would 
not deter, but rather inspire them ; for in the abyss of 
bankruptcy there would be the equalization of the finances 
of the Southern Confederacy with the United States. I 
doubt whether Governor Tilden's bosom would fortify the 
country like a wall of adamant against the allied powers of 
the Solid South as a claimant, and the rasr-babv as the mas- 
tcr of the mysteries of wise finance. 

M. Halsteal. 

Xew York, Friday, October 27, 1876. 



WAE CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 43 



THE WORTHLESSXESS OF GOV. TILDEX S RECENT PLEDGE DE-, 

MAXDS BEYOXD MR. TILDEN'S COXTROL A SDfGLE SAMPLE 

IN MISSOURI OF WHAT THE SOUTH ARE DETERMINED TO 
HATE WITH DEMOCRATIC VICTORY— TILDEX's DEFEAT THE 
ONLY SAFEGUARD. 

To the Editor of the World : 

In a spirit of reciprocity for your " memorandum " of 
this morning, I desire to place at your service a few items 
that will be found of interest to the tax-payers who have 
had their attention called, by Gov. Tilden's letter and other 
documents, to the Southern raid upon the Xational Treas- 
ury with Confederate war claims. 

I was ghid to see Gov. Tilden's letter, and the disclaimers 
from Southern men of a purpose to press those claims are 
all welcome ; for those who have studied the question with 
the greatest attention have the gravest apprehension of its 
magnitude. Gov. Tilden's letter is proof of the existence 
of the " public peril " that I attempted to describe in the 
address that was sufficiently " delivered '"' to serve my pur- 
poses in preparing it. He certainly did go further than his 
partisan friends have been accustomed to do, in admitting 
that there might be Southern claims not covered by the 
fourteenth amendment. If I have not heretofore done 
justice to that admission, I propose now to do work meet 
for repentance of the sin of omission. 

You quote Gov. Tilden as saying : 

" Xo claim for any loss or damage incurred by disloyal 
persons arising from the late war, whether covered hy the 
fourteerdh amendment or not, will be recognized or paid." 

The amount of this is that Gov. Tilden oilers us his per- 
sonal pledge as security against the payment of the claims 
outside the fourteenth amendment. Without questioning 
his sincerity — as might be done under the circumstances 
Avithout extraordinary bitterness of antagonism — I must 
pronounce the security insufficient. It is well to have it, 
but it is poor collateral to put up with the amendment. 
Indeed, I am of opinion that if the Democratic Party takes 



44 WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 



possession of'tlie Government, neither the Constitution nor 
the President could stand against tlie solid South and resist 
the war claims of that section for two 3'ears. The four- 
teenth amendment is not the child of the Democratic Party, 
and the Democratic President who could withstand the 
master of his party— Ihe solid South— as a claimant for 
damages during the war by trespasses on the sacred soil, 
lias not been invented and certainly has not appeared in 
Gov. Tilden. 

Tiie passage from Governor Tilden's letter is given above 
as the Wod'l italicized it. I desire to emphasize the words 
" disloyal persons," The theory upon which the solid 
South presses its claims is that there are no such persons. 
Mr. Cabell, of Virginia, reports from the Conmiittee on 
War Claims, in a bill granting relief in a tobacco case, that, 
legally, a pardoned rebel never was a rebel at alb That, I 
suppose, must be the Democratic law. Mr. Kiddle, of Ten- 
nessee, says, " we are all loyal now," a phrase that covers the 
Democratic sentiment. Why, then, does Governor Tilden 
nsc the expression " disloyal persons " in a letter calling for 
legal exactness as well as a strictly defined expression of 
the feeling and judgment of his party ? 

If there arc any [)Crsons not according to law loyal under 
' the interpretation that Mr. Cahill makes of pardons, it is 
the Democratic i)olicy that their loyalty shall be recognized 
and established. This would leave Mr. Tilden's pledge 
without application, with the exception of the part alloted 
to " scrutiny," which is to be done with "jealous care " — 
words which are not of much value within a fortnight of 
a Presidential election. 

1 do not believe Gov. Tilden and his lieutenants in labor 
in this city have understood the full extent of the solici- 
tu<lc there is in the solid South about war claims, or the 
dangerous aspirations that have been enkindled with the 
hopes of Democratic victory ; and the demand that I un- 
diM'stand to have been made from the Tilden head-quarters 
for assuriinccs by telegraph from the party leaders in the 
Soutiiern States that they are not expecting, with the ad- 
vent (jf the Democratic party to power, to secure payment 



WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 45 

for loss or damage snftered by them during the late war, is 
as crnol as it is '' futile." 

I did not notice that Missouri has been heard from in 
this connection. She has taken action to press, with the 
sovereign force inherent in a State, the claims of her 
citizens. Gov. Woodson, in his amiual Message to the 
General Assembly, Jan. 6, 1875, says : 

" There were presented to the Board of Commissioners 
11,961 claims, amounting in the aggregate to $4,844,362.29. 
Seven thousand live hundred and fifty-four of those claims 
were allowed during the time in which the board had the 
right to sit, and certificates have been issued therefor aggre- 
gating the sum of |2,382,1 32.67. At the expiration of the 
time fixed by law for the adjustment of the claims pending 
before them, there were a great many claims unacted upon, 
it prooing a physical impossihillty for the Commissioners to ex- 
amine and pass upon all the claims filed loitliin the time pre- 
scribed by the act." 

One of the certificates issued has been negotiated, and 
has fallen into the hands of the Kepublican National Ex- 
ecutive Committee. It is hereby marked for identification, 
and filed as evidence : 

E"o. 52. $55 80. 

It is hereby certified that the State of Missouri is in- 
debted to Woodford M. Paris in the sum of fifty-five and 
80-100 dollars on account of supplies furnished. This cer- 
tificate is not payable by the State until after the claim of 
said Woodford M. Paris has been presented to the United 
States Government, and the amount allowed and paid to the 
State, and then only for the actual amount received from the 
United States Government. 

City of Jefferson, Mo., Sept. 8, 1874. 

Silas Woodson, Governor of Missouri. 

J. Y. Crafton, Acting Quartermaster General. 

The printed indorsement on the certificate is : " Issued 
in accordance with the provisions of an act of the General 
Assembly of the State of Missouri, approved March 19, 
1874." 



46 WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 



Please to notice Gov. Woodson's pathetic statement that 
it was pliysically impossible to examine all the claims pre- 
sented, and, therefore, as the time in which the commission 
had a right to sit was unfortunately limited, only 7,554 of 
them could be " scrutinized with jealous care," as it were, 
and passed upon, that certiticates might be issued. So the 
first crop of these claims in one State, before a commission 
restricted to a few months' work, and embarrassed by the 
necessity of assuming to pay some regard to the loyalty of 
the claimants, amounted to more than seven thousand live 
liundred certiticates to be paid through the State Treasury 
when " i)resented to the United States Government and the 
amount allowed." This does not seem to be a small 
matter. 

Xow, if the Statute of Limitations is repealed ; if the 
Supreme Court of the United States has defined the Trus- 
teeship of the Government, as the World says it has ; and 
if it has also declared, as I understand the World to say, 
that the issue of a special pardon to a rebel proves inno- 
cence and not guilt — proves not that the pardoned person 
was a disloyalist, but that he always was loyal — it must be 
admitted that there is a very broad road leading into the 
Treasury of the United States from the South. If we add 
Mr. AVilshire's scheme to " facilitate" claims by authorizing 
suits to be instituted in the United States Courts, and have 
a trial "by juries of the vicinage," and if we accept also 
Mr. Riddle's resolution that the testimony of "any reput- 
able citizen " sliall be sufiicient to "efiectually establish " a 
claim, we have certainly facilitated the work of " adjusting " 
the money out of the Treasury in a remarkable degree, 
without calling upon Gov. Tilden to veto the Riddle bill or 
to jyerform any other act equally distressing to his Southern 
su[)porters. 

It is said that when Gov. Tilden's friends gathered around 
liim and congratulated him upon his nomination at St. 
Louis, lie said: "The [leople want reform — that's me;" or 
words to that effect. This may not be authentic, but it re- 
sembles the theory of the letter of last week, admitting the 
existence of a danger, but answering for the candidate him- 



WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 



self: "Here am I. The country is safe with me. I will 
veto." 

Too much depends here upon the one-man power. Even 
if we might trust Gov. Tilden as far as he goes, we can not 
afford to trust his party. It is the character of the party 
and not the will of the man that is important. I thought 
it pertinent, in a former letter, to refer to Gov. Tilden's con- 
tempt, no longer ago than August last, for the self-imposed 
restraints upon candidates. He saw their futility then, 
though he asserts their suiRciency now. The people are 
likely to accept Gov. Tilden's cooler judgment as to the 
futility of such restraints; at any rate so far as he is him- 
self concerned, and to restrain him from a position in which 
he at least could not prevent infinite mischief. The best 
and only complete security against Confederate war claims, 
is to put it out of the power of the Confedenites, in the ca- 
pacity of United States authorities for another term of four 
years, to pass upon them and pay them out of the National 
Treasury, or to bankrupt the country by war issues in' time 
of peace, of legal-tender paper to pay the claims in question 
and make money plenty. Mr. Riddle was telling the [)eo- 
ple of the Fourth^ Tennessee District, until he was visited 
b}^ a phonographej', that Democratic victory meant the pay- 
ment of the Southern war claims, and then there would be 
plenty of money and good times. Perhaps the people of 
New York are not prepared to approve that programme. 
If the}' are not, they have but one safe course, and that is 
to stop the Southern raid upon the Treasury where it is, by 
defeating the Democratic Party. 

As to the sense of safety that the country should feel 
under the promises of personal protection that Governor 
Tilden has given, I quote from his Kent letter, dated Oct. 
26, 1860, the following passage, which I think may be pro- 
nounced pertinent and instructive : 

" What will Mr. Lincoln do ? Can he be expected, as 
President, to understand the state of things in any other 
sense than that of his own partizan policy ? Can he avoid 
the attempt to maintain the power of his party by the same 
means which will have acquired it? Can he emancipate 



48 WAR CLAIMS OF THE SOUTH. 

himself from tlie dominion of the ideas, associations, and 
influences which will have accompanied him in his rise to 
l»()\ver? Can he bo expected to act in any new direction 
with suliicient breadth of view and iirmness of purpose?" 

The question, '• What will Mr. Tilden do?" is not to be 
disregarded ; but it is not the question of the daj^, and we 
should not permit it to become so. His veto might save 
the country, but we would prefer leaning upon a more cer- 
tain supi)ort. In his Kent letter he said, after showing the 
peril of relying upon the possible policy of one man, " I 
can not, for one, assent to the creation of such a state of 
things." We can not do better than to apply this doctrine 
to the case before us ; and I sa}' of him, as he said of Lin- 
coln, in concluding the letter from which we have been 
quoting, "defeat him and all our great interests and hopes 
are unquestionably safe." M. Halstead. 

Xew York, October 29, 187G. 



THE 



War Claims of the South. 



THE NEW SOUTHEEN CONFEDEEACY, WITH THE 
DEMOCEATIC PAETY AS ITS CLAIM AGENCY, DE- 
MANDING INDEMNITY FOE CONQUEST, 
AND THEEATENING A DISPUTED 
PEESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 



THE CANDIDACY OF HAYES AND THE RELIEF OF THE 
REPUBLIC FROM DANGER. 



^N ADDRESS 

Af Cooper Insdtvte, New York, Wednesday Evening, October 25. 187G. 



AND LETTERS ADDRESSED TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW 

YORK WORLD REPLYING TO THAT .JOURNAL, 

AND TO GOVERNOR TILDEN, 



By M. HALSTEAD, 



OF CIN'CI.NNATI. 



CI N CI N N ATI: 

ROBERT CLARKE & CO., PRINTERS. 

1876. 









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